Waymo has partnered with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to test its self-driving technology.

A U.S. District Court judge ordered Uber to return secret files stolen from Waymo, Google’ autonomous driving subsidiary and one of the company’s biggest competitors, according to a decision released Monday.

The files in question contain information about self-driving technology that Waymo claims a former employee absconded with last year. Adding insult to injury, Waymo also inked a deal the same day to share its autonomous technology with Uber’s other big rival, Lyft, according to Reuters.

Waymo, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet Inc., claims one of its former engineers stole intellectual property from the company when he left in January 2016 and funneled it into Uber’s Lidar system. Upon leaving Alphabet Inc., that engineer, Anthony Levandowski, helped found Otto, an autonomous trucking company that would later be purchased by Uber.

Judge William Alsup of San Francisco wrote the Uber either knew or should have known that Levandowski had taken more than 14,000 confidential files from Waymo. He thus ordered Uber to return the files and prohibited Levandowski, the one-time leader of Uber’s self-driving research team, from doing any further work on Lidar, a light-based sensor system used to guide autonomous vehicles.

However, Alsup also ruled that few Waymo trade secrets can be traced to Uber’s self-driving technology and the patent claims against Uber were “meritless,” because some of the technology was industry common knowledge. The decision revealed Monday will not prevent Uber from developing autonomous technology.

“We are pleased with the court's ruling that Uber can continue building and utilizing all of its self-driving technology, including our innovation around Lidar,” Uber said in an emailed statement Monday. “We look forward to moving toward trial and continuing to demonstrate that our technology has been built independently from the ground up."

Lyft could end up the big winner in the clash between Uber and Lyft.

(Kelly Sullivan)

While both sides had their wins in court, Waymo took the upper hand outside of it by forging a partnership with Lyft, the other big name in the ride-hailing business.

In addition to upstaging Uber, this partnership gives Waymo an opportunity to test its automation system in a real-world setting while providing Lyft with a second source for autonomous technology. Unlike Uber, Lyft is reliant on its other partner, General Motors, for all of its self-driving technology.